Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything

[Marschy]

If you have to buy new telemetry Crispy, and your not in a hurry, then consider one of these.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/3DRobotics-3DR-Radio-Telemetry-Kit-915Mhz-433Mhz-868Mhz-for-APM-2-5-2-52-2-6/1966908411.html

I use the same one and they work fine. Nearly half the price of the Hobbyking variety with free shipping, so if you take into account shipping from Hobbyking, probably is half the cost.

I tend to punish myself when I stuff up and when I buy a replacement it is always the cheapest I can find with free shipping. Now that Christmas is over, it should only take 2-3 weeks to deliver.

Telemetry is usually the last thing you sort out when building anyway, so by the time you get the flight controller and ESC's and motors sorted, it'll be in your mailbox.

[Marschy]

Just a heads up. I don't know if it happens with the hobbyking telemetry radio, but the ones I have cause servos that are controlled by the APM to flutter and twitch.

I took preventative measures with my Reptile-Aphid and promptly forgot to do it with my X-mode Alien, so that's what I've been up to today.

Its a simple problem to fix. You wrap the telemetry cables (like in your picture, the 3 way cable) with aluminium alfoil, then wrap the cable and foil with spiral wrap to hold the foil in place, effectively making a shielded cable. You also wrap the actual air module in glad wrap, then wrap it as well in alfoil before putting the case on. The glad wrap is so the alfoil doesn't short out on anything on the 3DR telemetry radio. The problem then goes away almost completely.

Without this modification, my tilt gimbal servo twitches more than I do when I haven't taken my Parkinson's Disease medication.

[CBRK]

Just emailed ACMA regarding frequency allocations.
Should find out in a couple of days.
Thanks for your help guys.
Regards
Crispy
PS Chris. Yes an orange person with 25 years service and considering I am 46 now it is over half my life. I do everything from Road Rescue, Storm, Boats, Alpine Search even a little vertical work in the past. A team I was in competed in the international road rescue comp and ended up with a 3rd place. Not bad for a bunch of volunteers up against professionals.

Hi Crispy,

I can confirm you'll need a foundation class license at a minimum to run on the 433Mhz range and you will need to wind down the output to a certain output as well.  Be aware my HK harness was incorrect, I had to swap over several pins, just use a small screwdriver and pop them out and put them in the right spot (+5 to +5, GND to GND, Tx to Rx and Rx to Tx).  If I recall I had to do this on the 5p connector and the 6p connector for the telemetry radio (I think the +5 line was in the wrong spot from memory).

Only 11 years in myself, mainly storm, flood rescue tech (L3), floodboat, made it to state rescue comp, currently a TL at a unit and my regions Deputy RLDO (vol).  Definitely keeps me active, I think I'll be tackling tree felling this year, at this stage I'm pacing myself otherwise I'll run out of new things to do :-)  Definitely keeps me active and busy.

Regards,

Chris

[CBRK]

Just a heads up. I don't know if it happens with the hobbyking telemetry radio, but the ones I have cause servos that are controlled by the APM to flutter and twitch.

I took preventative measures with my Reptile-Aphid and promptly forgot to do it with my X-mode Alien, so that's what I've been up to today.

Its a simple problem to fix. You wrap the telemetry cables (like in your picture, the 3 way cable) with aluminium alfoil, then wrap the cable and foil with spiral wrap to hold the foil in place, effectively making a shielded cable. You also wrap the actual air module in glad wrap, then wrap it as well in alfoil before putting the case on. The glad wrap is so the alfoil doesn't short out on anything on the 3DR telemetry radio. The problem then goes away almost completely.

Without this modification, my tilt gimbal servo twitches more than I do when I haven't taken my Parkinson's Disease medication.

Ummm, nope I dont get this issue on mine.  I have 2 sets of the HK telemetry 915Mhz radios.  I would notice it on the tricopter as it's yaw is controlled by a servo.  Sounds like it's not very well shielded at all, I wonder if the input wires are carrying some rf noise?  That's not good.

I'm thinking if you had an RF scanner it wouldn't look pretty.

I do have some jitter but this only started after I did an auto tune as I stopped it before it finished and it is a consistent sway and over correct.  I'll be retuning this week if the weather plays ball.

Chris

[Marschy]

Ummm, nope I dont get this issue on mine.  I have 2 sets of the HK telemetry 915Mhz radios.  I would notice it on the tricopter as it's yaw is controlled by a servo.  Sounds like it's not very well shielded at all, I wonder if the input wires are carrying some rf noise?  That's not good.

I'm thinking if you had an RF scanner it wouldn't look pretty.

I do have some jitter but this only started after I did an auto tune as I stopped it before it finished and it is a consistent sway and over correct.  I'll be retuning this week if the weather plays ball.

Chris

The problem is well documented with the old version of the telemetry radios. So they must have addressed the problem with the new interchangeable air/ground modules.

[CBRK]

The only issue I see is that some of the hardware will need to be mounted on the top plate. Given the propensity for crashing these mini-quads, that's not a good thing.

Check out the ZMR250 on Aliexpress, and also look at how popular they are on RCGroups. The thread gets close to 20-50 posts per day, it's nuts.

Here is a link to the one I bought, which is a ZMR250 in all but name.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Blackout-QAV250-Carbon-Fiber-Mini-250-FPV-Quadcopter-Frame-Unassembled/2004383973.html

Hi,

I agree with Marschy on this one, with having to mount so much stuff to the top plate I think you'll break something.  My mini quad has had several tumbles where it has ended on it's top.  The big one on to the road took out a GPS receiver, the others on grass have resulted in nothing more than my FPV antenna being bend slightly.

I've got two of the QAV kits (so I had some spares) - note that one standoff was badly milled so I had to pull from the spares straight away.  Note that it will be tight, I'm still using my HK frame because it's roughly 15% bigger (although the QAV250 has larger spaced motor mounts).

I'd recommend going for the QAV kit to give yourself some protection from tumbles.  Also ensure that you invest in a L connector for your FPV Tx or get a flexible cable.

Chris

[CBRK]

Well today I didn't get to fly as hoped. I did however get to calibrate both my HK and one of my non HK Power Modules.  Both only needed minor updating for voltage, the current however was a different story.  I used a Watt Meter I had laying around (was going to be my output meter on my trailer but I now only have a low draw since the fridge is in the Prado it was surplus to my needs).  Note all this was done with a tether to avoid any fly offs indoors.

The Tricopter using the HK PM was almost spot on, only needed minor changes.  It was about 5% to high, I almost left it as a safety factor but thought I should have it correct.

The non HK Power Module on the quad was useless.  The current was way out, I was drawing 8 amps the PM was reporting 15 amps.  No wonder my quad was reporting 1800mah used in 7-8 mins.  It looks much better now, reports the right values at load (above 3+ amps), at rest it is reporting 0.3 amps when it's drawing 0.6 amps.  I will retest tomorrow that its calibrated correctly, should now get around 11-12 mins which is around what I was planning.  Means that I can finally test out the smaller 1300mah battery to see if the lighter load will give me something decent.

Note that when testing the current you need to induce around a 10 amp load.  For the mini quad this was very hard to do when 10 amps will get me bouncing around on the ground - had to settle for 8 amps with some minor movement.

Also found my IXUS 115HS and I've loaded CHDK onto it.  I've not found my battery charger yet, I ordered a replacement on ebay, so should be here in less than a week.  Hopefully my 3 partially charged batteries will keep me going till it arrives or I find my old charger.  Will now need to wire up a harness to control it via the APM, then I can try my hand at aerial mapping as well.

Chris

[Marschy]

Note that when testing the current you need to induce around a 10 amp load.  For the mini quad this was very hard to do when 10 amps will get me bouncing around on the ground - had to settle for 8 amps with some minor movement.

Good to know, so you are setting the module to 'Other' and recording the voltage under load as well I presume?

[Marschy]

Aw Chris, who is gunna buy one first.



Edit: Me, just ordered one.

[CBRK]

Good to know, so you are setting the module to 'Other' and recording the voltage under load as well I presume?

That is right I set it to other, I did the voltage under running levels (0.6A) and the current under heavier load (8A for the mini and 10A for the tri).

I think if you do the voltage under heavy load you'll get some odd figures.  Only thing I found to running it under heavy load was for the current calibration.  Will look a bit harder, hope I dont have to do the V under load otherwise I'll have to set up the tether again....

Chris

[CBRK]

Aw Chris, who is gunna buy one first.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__68596__Quanum_Trifecta_Mini_Foldable_Tricopter_Frame_KIT_.html

Edit: Me, just ordered one.

LOL, I think I've got to focus on learning to fly the mini quad and all the mods for the tricopter.  Have you tried the drift mode in AC3.2?

You could try some of the elites on that thing :-)  Keep us posted on how it flys.

Edit: Bloody hell that is cool, just fold it up and it's only 15cm long, holy crap that is small!

Chris

[Marschy]

LOL, I think I've got to focus on learning to fly the mini quad and all the mods for the tricopter.  Have you tried the drift mode in AC3.2?

You could try some of the elites on that thing :-)  Keep us posted on how it flys.

Edit: Bloody hell that is cool, just fold it up and it's only 15cm long, holy crap that is small!

Chris

I'm going to switch my focus from the ZMR250 to this mini-tri then come back to the ZMR250 after that. So I'll use all the kit I have accumulated so far for the mini quad, which means Emax 2280kv motors, Blueseries 12A ESC's, Mini APM etc.

I'm heading up to my brother's this weekend, he has a large block, so I'll give drift mode a try then on the X-mode Alien frame.

[Mandrake]

All the remaining items arrived yesterday..FPV cam , OSD , 12mm lenses and replacement motor . Battery for Radiolink Tx...
Will finish off the Alien today ..Test it all tethered .. Then wait for a day at the park ...

Found an H250 frame and all needed bits for around USD 170 ( less motors and props which I have already ) - That will be my after Summer project ..

Now to go and fix the Alien !!

[Mandrake]

Bloody Hell !! OSD don't work !!

Anyone know the difference between N-OSD and S-OSD ?? This thing is N-OSD and has a TTL / GPS switch set to GPS so I figure thats OK .. Just a black monitor when I hook it up no video feed at all ...

Cheers

Steve

[Marschy]

Bloody Hell !! OSD don't work !!

Anyone know the difference between N-OSD and S-OSD ?? This thing is N-OSD and has a TTL / GPS switch set to GPS so I figure thats OK .. Just a black monitor when I hook it up no video feed at all ...

Cheers

Steve

Black monitor may indicate that a signal is being received from the video transmitter, but nothing is coming through from the camera itself. It may not be the OSD per say. I have just finished installing all the telemetry on the X-mode Alien and when this was happening to me, it was typically because the video cable from the camera had come loose from the connection on the minimOSD, and sometimes that my power supply cable where it plugs in, the connector for 12 volts or ground had popped out of the connector. When the camera wasn't hooked up correctly, the OSD information was not processed at all and passed through the minimOSD. You may want to get a multimeter out and check that you have continuity between the camera cabling to the OSD and from the video output from the OSD to the video input in to the video transmitter.

[Mandrake]

If I hook up the Video ins and outs together camera works fine .. plug into the OSD and black screen..

[Marschy]

If I hook up the Video ins and outs together camera works fine .. plug into the OSD and black screen..

If you remove the video out cable from the OSD do you  get snow on your monitor?

[Mandrake]

Nup - just black screen..

[Marschy]

Nup - just black screen..

Are you getting around 1 volt or less coming out of the OSD video out and ground connection?

Edit: I should add with the FPV camera connected and powered up.

[Mandrake]

Now you're getting technical .. LOL ... how do I measure that just multimeter across the pins ? ( WARNING - SMOKE HAZARD !! )

[Marschy]

Is this the Remzibi you are using

[Mandrake]

Nup that's the last one I had . Smoked it !!! That S-OSD..
I'm buying another one of them this time as it worked really well until I crossed the wires.

[Marschy]

So it's this one.



I reckon you should try eliminating other hardware. Unplug the GPS and EXP connectors, make sure the slider is in the GPS position. Make sure you have a good 12 volt supply to the bottom pins on the right hand side and GND to the top pin when the board is facing upwards and see if your video is working then.

[Mandrake]

Hmmmm !! I need 12 volt power do I I thought it ran off the fc supply .. That explains why I don't have a signal eh !!!!

[Marschy]

Hmmmm !! I need 12 volt power do I I thought it ran off the fc supply .. That explains why I don't have a signal eh !!!!

Lemme double check

The back of the board on Thanksbuyer seems to indicate 12V, but my eyesight is not the best. Is there an indication of voltage on the power connector like you can see here on the bottom left of this picture?

Edit: The picture above also indicates 'Power Supply 3S', so I think you need 12 volts.